Basic Computer Maintenance 5 most common educational technology devices found at my school
Ipad/Iphone
oI currently own my personal Iphone that I use at school and our PE department wrote a grant last year and was awarded with Ipad minis. Both of these devices are great from a teachers stand point. In PE I can take the Ipad around and take roll using our pinnacle gradebook. Where in the past I would have to go around with a roll sheet and then later enter it into the grade book. In PE class we also use all kinds of fitness apps like nike+, heart rate monitor app, pedometer app, fitness app, BMI calculator, and we take videos of students performing skills. These videos let the students have instant feedback on task they are performing. The Iphone allows me to check my school email wherever and whenever which allows for faster parent feedback and the fact it comes in really handy when we are outside on our lower fields and I do not have easy access to a computer.
Chrome books
oOur school currently has 6 class sets of 30 chrome books that teachers can check out and use on a day to day basis for students in their classes. These are great because chrome books are very user friendly and allow student to complete projects totally online and save things on the cloud and when they are done they can either upload them to their teachers google classroom or they could just email them directly to the teacher.
Active Inspire Software
oThis program is amazing and I can say that it took me over 2 years to complete but I now have all of my health lessons on active inspire, in the past they were just plain old power point slides. This program allows you to create active student learning in that the students are actively engaged with the program when you complement it with the active slate or active/promethean board. This program allows student to write and do all kinds of other things as you show a flipchart during class whereas in the past the students just read what was on the screen during a power point. This program allows teachers to embed videos directly into their flipchart and the options are endless. Needless to say I love using this program and would recommend it to any educator.
Active Inspire Active Slate
oThe Active Slate is a must have if you use Active Inspire. This slate allows you to control your entire computer wirelessly during a class. It also allows students the ability to write on the screen and do anything you would normally do at your computer but instead you can be walking around the room and having the students actively engaged in the lesson.
Google Classroom
oGoogle classroom is AWESOME! I am currently in the process of making them for each of my classes at school. For starters it allows educators to go paperless which in my case is great because we just go new copiers at our school that we have a personal code for and each copy we make charges out department 2 cents, so conserving paper allows us to use out budget on lots of other things that can directly affect the students. It also allows you to make announcements to each class where the students can directly comment on in your google classroom. This is great for homework by the way since you can add the students’ parents to their accounts so that when you assign homework the parents are also notified. Google classroom is the way to go for me as an educator to further assist my students and create the future of tomorrow.
Virus Awareness
What is a virus?
A computer virus is anything that my corrupt your computer or device. Many computer viruses are spread as emails, attachments or downloads, images or for that fact any file including pictures or audio.
How to prevent viruses?
First off there are countless ways on the internet to find out if you have a computer virus, the number one thing users notice is that there computer is running really slow and or certain things won’t work or open. The good thing is there are a lot of things you can do to help prevent your computer or device from getting a virus in the first place. For starters you should have an anti-virus program installed on your computer. I know on my home laptop I run Avast which is a program that helps protect my computer from getting a virus, for instance if I go on a website that is known to have viruses this program will send me a notification. It will also block certain things on my computer like pop ups. Another way of preventing a virus is when your computer has pop ups for updates you should never just click on them and say “okay”, you never know if this could be a virus. If you need to update something like for instance Adobe reader, you should go directly to their website not a second hand one and download it from there. Finally you should never download anything in an email unless you know who the sender is.
Flow chart for trouble shooting a computer virus (I tried to make one of these on my own but couldn’t figure it out, I found this one online and it was so simple and good I had to use it)
5 most common educational technology devices found at my school
Virus Awareness
- What is a virus?
A computer virus is anything that my corrupt your computer or device. Many computer viruses are spread as emails, attachments or downloads, images or for that fact any file including pictures or audio.- How to prevent viruses?
First off there are countless ways on the internet to find out if you have a computer virus, the number one thing users notice is that there computer is running really slow and or certain things won’t work or open. The good thing is there are a lot of things you can do to help prevent your computer or device from getting a virus in the first place. For starters you should have an anti-virus program installed on your computer. I know on my home laptop I run Avast which is a program that helps protect my computer from getting a virus, for instance if I go on a website that is known to have viruses this program will send me a notification. It will also block certain things on my computer like pop ups. Another way of preventing a virus is when your computer has pop ups for updates you should never just click on them and say “okay”, you never know if this could be a virus. If you need to update something like for instance Adobe reader, you should go directly to their website not a second hand one and download it from there. Finally you should never download anything in an email unless you know who the sender is.Flow chart for trouble shooting a computer virus (I tried to make one of these on my own but couldn’t figure it out, I found this one online and it was so simple and good I had to use it)
References
What is a computer virus? (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/virus-whatis.aspx
How to prevent and remove viruses and other malware. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/129972
Computer Virus Removal. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.pctechbytes.com/security/virus-removal-instructions-and-flowchart/